After having their base of operations blown up in the big Gold Rush, red team decides to invest in the silver industry. This time they made sure not to build any tracks on which deadly bombs could be delivered.
Blue team however, doesn't need any stupid carts when the enemy seems to have put the explosives in place themselves...

The rocks act as playfield breakers, dividing the attack routes in 2 distict paths. The building is supposed to have been a workstation for people with radio tower duty, but its been reduced to a broken shack over time. I had plans to fit the house into the rocks before (when I got a similar comment) but from a gameplay viewpoint it fits much better at its current location.

I would probably find it more wierd if it was slotted into the rock... would seem like a lot of unnecessary work for those guys who once built it (not talking about me).

Everyone should have a hobby, mine was forcing sightline discussions into every map thread.

Control point A needs some rebuilding, it is not playing like I was hoping it to (less fighting on the point, instead control the area.. was the plan), people just bunch up on that small space and deathmatch instead. sigh... well point A was entirely rebuild just a few weeks ago so its not a big surprise that it needs tweaking.

So I need a way to move the point to a more central position, within easy reach for both teams and it needs to look atleast somewhat believable.

I dont feel like changing the connectors too much, which makes it all a lot harder.
A few people told me to put it at the top of the hill, but slower classes would be put at a huge disadvantage then..

Well, wish me luck -> back to the drawing board
If you have any nice ideas, I'm listening.. it might give me some inspiration!

Last edited: Mar 22, 2009

Everyone should have a hobby, mine was forcing sightline discussions into every map thread.

When I look at it (point A) I can see a few flaws but any major changes I've thought of would introduce far worse ones.
So: I have no clue what to do with it, people who complained had no suggestions, majority of players doesn't care.

So I guess point A stays the same until I can figure out how to make it better.

Right now I'm busy working on the 3d(and 2d) skybox and soundscapes. Detail work is ~20% done (or less). Sorry for being so damn slow but I hope it will be worth the wait!

Everyone should have a hobby, mine was forcing sightline discussions into every map thread.

Respawn times are unacceptably long for BLU when they've captured one point (15+ seconds vs 5+ seconds for RED). I've seen over a dozen rounds where BLU takes a point (B in the three most recent rounds) and 7 minutes is spent grinding out the rest of the round in futility. The layout of A in general needs heavy rework. BLU is forced to commit to leaving their spawn from the left exit to A. The lower paths around A are too narrow - it's difficult to see where everything is and much too prone to traps and ambushes. Point A is far too close to a huge interior area where RED can cheaply pop in and out of to defend the point. The point is for all intents and purposes only accessible via one small chokepoint. There's a lack of good health pack placement around C.

The map has changed a lot since the last time I touched the spawntimers so the imbalance was pretty expected. While I don't want it to become a grind, it's very easy to tip the scales in favor of either team with just a few seconds in the wrong pool. I'm going to do a few test runs and see where the teams meet up when taking different routes.

There is plenty of health around C...? The amount is basically the same as gravelpit.http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/nn220/Ravidge/cp_silvertrail/a7/cp_silvertrail_a7_healthammo.jpg
blue = health, orange = ammo
1 small health at the middle path.
2 small health in the A-C connector.
2 small health in the B-C connector.
When a blue player retreats to get health the red team has successfully defended from that attack, the time it takes for blue to refill health should actually mean something in terms of strategy. If you could restart the fight with full health with a quick stop behind the corner it will quickly become a very unfair fight.
If you have any specific placement suggestions I'm listening, but I can't work with only a quick comment.

The critique on point A however, helps a lot. I have previously made a lot of sketches on how to improve point A but nothing really felt like an improvement...
There are some basic guidelines I want to include though.
*Vertical gameplay
*Make the control point central to the area
*Point accessible from multiple directions
*Make the large side-building more important
*It should all fit the theme of alpine-mining

I have decided to add a few more options for attackers, some are longer but gives height advantage while other paths may be more direct and dangerous.
I also made the entire area 256 units wider, this isnt noticable except on ground level where it isn't as claustrophobic anymore, I'm also thinking of adding an escape route that leads into the side-building down there.
I'm still working on it and will probably have a screen or two in a few days.

Everyone should have a hobby, mine was forcing sightline discussions into every map thread.

Looks fantastic, can't wait to play it! Looks like you accomplished the same feel of the old A, while getting rid of the problems of the old version, nice job :thumbup1:. Couple things though: That fake wood texture is really obviously fake, and sort of bugs me, as a lot of that wood looks like it should have a real wood texture, for actual sturdiness. I'm sure it was a conscious decision on your part, just my opinion. Also, it looks like there's a platform on top of the point. Is there actually anything there, and is it accessible by demo/rocket jumping?

Looks fantastic, can't wait to play it! Looks like you accomplished the same feel of the old A, while getting rid of the problems of the old version, nice job :thumbup1:. Couple things though: That fake wood texture is really obviously fake, and sort of bugs me, as a lot of that wood looks like it should have a real wood texture, for actual sturdiness. I'm sure it was a conscious decision on your part, just my opinion. Also, it looks like there's a platform on top of the point. Is there actually anything there, and is it accessible by demo/rocket jumping?

Click to expand...

The wood texture was only chosen because it had the right color
And the top platform can indeed be reached with demo/rj. (I had to remake a lot of optimization to allow that height, heh)

Thanks for all the encouraging comments guys!

Last edited: Apr 9, 2009

Everyone should have a hobby, mine was forcing sightline discussions into every map thread.